Life As A Victorian Lady by Pamela Horn

Presented in a small giftbook format, this series offers books that intend to take the reader back in time and show them what it was really like to be a Victorian Lady, what sights and smells would be around them, and what day-to-day life would involve in terms of food, clothing, living quarters, kitchens, and more.

This is a quick read – and very cheap. While anyone with an interest in the Victorian era isn’t going to be astonished by the details of life back then (e.g. the aristocratic ladies who died in childbirth after twelve or thirteen children in less than two decades), what the book has going for it is a lot of personal accounts.

This is a book about actual ladies of the Victorian era – meaning the women of the higher ranks.

I enjoy reading books like these. Those that lift interesting bits and pieces from journals and letters of the era and give us an insight into how life was at the time.

I find the Victorian era fascinating largely because of the huge contrasts and conflicts of the time. Because of this, I also find quite a lot of historical romance frustrating because it refuses to acknowledge it (or gives the secondary characters challenging, historically accurate lives but somehow the book’s romantic leads are exempt!).

One quibble: I found it baffling that the editors would change the spelling of direct quotes from British into American English, but then would leave the old-fashioned spelling of words like choose (chuse)!

You can read Life As A Victorian Lady in one sitting, and I thought it was well and truly worth the $1.81 I paid! Annoying for me, it appears to be cheaper in other countries…